What's with the low scores? Not a score over 60, Miki does a sick 3lz-3lo and gets a 56, and 3 of the 11 competitors scored below 40? Seems too low, I know there's no more spiral sequence, but the scores still seem low. Men's too.

What's with the low scores? Not a score over 60, Miki does a sick 3lz-3lo and gets a 56, and 3 of the 11 competitors scored below 40? Seems too low, I know there's no more spiral sequence, but the scores still seem low. Men's too.

Didn't GOE get changed with the new rules? That could be another reason

I just watched Mirai's SP and I she does slower than last year at worlds. I wouldn't say that she looks slow slow. I think she looked faster than most ladies that already skated in the GP. I wonder if Miki's jumps were downgraded because her TES is 3-4 points behind Mirai and Akiko's TES.

Some of these skaters have shown their programs 2-3 times already. This was the first time out for Mirai and I thought she did OK. Hope she can hold up during the LP.

Yeah, you could sort of tell at some moments that it was her first time performing this program... but you could also see she has been training hard. Last season I though Mirai's program had an every so slightly "memorized" feel to them and I saw less of that this time.
I wonder if she is still working on the 3 lutz/3 toe or if they have ruled it out for this season.

Didn't GOE get changed with the new rules? That could be another reason

Now that I've had time to think about it, I don't think scores were THAT low (for the ladies, at least). Mirai's 3F was probably < but add the spiral sequence & she would have received about 63 points. Akiko around 61. Miki around 60. That's not too bad. We just got used to the 70s Yu-na, Mao and Joannie cranked out last season. It's also early in the season, so we can't really expect PCS hitting 30s. Once Yu-na, Joannie and Mao "return" we will see the scores we're used to. No biggie.

What does affect TES rather hard is the new distinction between < and << making it easier for the tech panel to penalize borderline jumps. What might have been given full credit last year (e.g. Kanako's first toe for her 3T-3T), is now given only 70%. Judges are also shown the deduction & recommended (or required?) to deduct points accordingly (1~2 for < 2~3 for <<) That has got to hurt & it doesn't help that the ladies are underperforming this whole GP season. The technical content has NOT been impressive.

There was no WOW in this comp either. I've never been a Miki Ando fan, so I'll be quiet about her, but she is included among the non wow skaters.

Live and in real-time, ladies' short was pretty lackluster, but at least not a complete splatfest. More 2A troubles than I expected to see at this level.

Originally Posted by fairly4

mirai was slow and laboured, she should have gotten an edge call on her lutz and ur. but she did show more emotion 2nd half. and was choppy--not flowing.
miki was okay but her 2nd triple on the triple looked a bit ur.

You are completely wrong. I was there. Mirai actually was not slow, and she was faster than just about anybody else out there tonight. The lutz was fine. However, your biases are well known and you don't ever let the facts get in your way, so carry on...

***
The current top 3 were clearly above the rest of the pack tonight, though each had her own technical warts. I'm not convinced about Mirai's music, Akiko carries hers off well, and Miki needs better choreography for hers, with less frantic arm movements on the footwork section.

Bingwa put together a decent technical showing, but she's not up to interpreting the music chosen for her. Amanda looks good out there, and she's a natural for Moon River, but needs that full jump arsenal, also she visibly slows down in the last part of the program.

Leonova looked awful, both the Halloween costume and the sloppy skating. It really does look like she has past her prime--definitely not on track to be the next Slutskaya. I don't agree with her placement above Helgesson, and she should be not too far in front of Dobbs, though she is. Min Jung Kwak had a rough night, hopefully it is an aberration, and not indicative of a less-than-desireable training situation. She is a very pretty skater to watch. Her PCS seemed a tad low. Musademba I had high hopes for, based on comments from those who saw her on the JGP circuit last 2 years. But....I'm seeing neither great athleticism nor superior artistry. Frankly, her skating looked somewhat clunky and the performance was flat--I had been led to believe she was very balletic and all that. I don't think Claire de Lune is the easiest piece of music to interpret. Szmiett's music is boring, not a good match for her. I found her general basic skating of clearly poorer quality than the other skaters. Which is odd, as I saw her at CoC last year, where she was a newbie, an unknown, and yet performed respectably. Is it my imagination or has she regressed?

Let's hope the ladies wake up in time to put some spark in those free skates tomorrow.

Min-Jung has had a back injury since this summer and is still recovering from it, so I think that explains some of her jump troubles here. She fell on the 3lz and on the 2a, which is usually a consistent jump for her. She also lost training time when she suddenly left Toronto and went back to Korea in August and had to look for a new coach, and looks quite a bit taller than last season. I hope she skates better tomorrow but I'm honestly not expecting much from her right now, just considering her injury and everything else that has been going on in her life recently. She also didn't skate well this time last season so she may be a skater who peaks later in the season. I'm adopting the wait and see approach with Min-Jung, she has some nice qualities and potential, but there are so many factors that could be causing her to struggle right now that I'm not going to panic yet. She did win the Korean National Ranking Competition last week though, score was like 127, so not great but not terrible considering all she's been through recently.

I believe Kristiene was injured recently too. From what I have seen, both she and Min-Jung are capable of much better. I thought the PCS for both were a little too low, but it may have been due to the mistakes, they both started out presenting well then looked a little panicked after making mistakes on the jumps. I hope everything goes better tomorrow.

Live and in real-time, ladies' short was pretty lackluster, but at least not a complete splatfest. More 2A troubles than I expected to see at this level.

You are completely wrong. I was there. Mirai actually was not slow, and she was faster than just about anybody else out there tonight. The lutz was fine. However, your biases are well known and you don't ever let the facts get in your way, so carry on...

***
The current top 3 were clearly above the rest of the pack tonight, though each had her own technical warts. I'm not convinced about Mirai's music, Akiko carries hers off well, and Miki needs better choreography for hers, with less frantic arm movements on the footwork section.

Bingwa put together a decent technical showing, but she's not up to interpreting the music chosen for her. Amanda looks good out there, and she's a natural for Moon River, but needs that full jump arsenal, also she visibly slows down in the last part of the program.

Leonova looked awful, both the Halloween costume and the sloppy skating. It really does look like she has past her prime--definitely not on track to be the next Slutskaya. I don't agree with her placement above Helgesson, and she should be not too far in front of Dobbs, though she is. Min Jung Kwak had a rough night, hopefully it is an aberration, and not indicative of a less-than-desireable training situation. She is a very pretty skater to watch. Her PCS seemed a tad low. Musademba I had high hopes for, based on comments from those who saw her on the JGP circuit last 2 years. But....I'm seeing neither great athleticism nor superior artistry. Frankly, her skating looked somewhat clunky and the performance was flat--I had been led to believe she was very balletic and all that. I don't think Claire de Lune is the easiest piece of music to interpret. Szmiett's music is boring, not a good match for her. I found her general basic skating of clearly poorer quality than the other skaters. Which is odd, as I saw her at CoC last year, where she was a newbie, an unknown, and yet performed respectably. Is it my imagination or has she regressed?

Let's hope the ladies wake up in time to put some spark in those free skates tomorrow.

Thanks for the Live report- and although some have said Mirai was slow she did not look slow to me watching the clips.
Miki - don't know what to say coz I like her but don't think much about her skating stands out aside from the occassional nice jump. Haven't seen Akiko yet - but for her NOT to be buried after the SP is a big improvement.

Don't get any fuss over Leonova - her skating lacks refinement and never fair to Irina that some fans compare them.